Brazil's leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returns to power on Jan. 1.
Who is #Lula? And what might his return to the presidency mean for low-income people in Brazil, Amazon deforestation and even Palestinian statehood? 🧵
Lula first came to power in 2003, after decades as a union organizer.
The son of farmers, he was a metal worker by 14.
His first presidency's social welfare programs lifted millions from poverty, targeting high-poverty groups, farmers and Indigenous/Afro-Brazilian communities.
Poverty fell 55% when Lula's Workers' Party controlled Brazil from 2003-2016: from about 22 million people in poverty to under 10 million.
By the end of Jair Bolsonaro's 2019-2022 term, the poverty rate skyrocketed — from 4.8% when the Workers' Party left power to almost 30%.
Lula has long championed Palestinian rights: One of his last acts in office in 2010 was to recognize Palestine as a state.
While the U.S. and most of Europe still resist recognition of Palestinian statehood, Lula's move was quickly followed by more Latin American nations.
Lula pledged to aim for "zero deforestation" of the Amazon, saying: "There is no climate security for the world without a protected Amazon."
Rainforest destruction skyrocketed under President Bolsonaro:
The Amazon lost over 8.4 million acres — an area bigger than Belgium.
Amazon deforestation reached historic lows under Lula's first presidency.
He vowed to reverse Bolsonaro polices that:
▪️ saw Amazon destruction rise 75%
▪️ gutted the environmental budget
▪️ saw a 500% surge in illegal mining
▪️ would destroy 2.5M more acres of Indigenous land
Attacks on Indigenous people skyrocketed under Brazil's President Bolsonaro:
▪️ murders of Indigenous people hit record levels, with 182 in 2020
▪️ invasions of Indigenous lands tripled
▪️ 20,000+ illegal miners, linked to violent attacks, reported on Yanomami lands alone
#Lula has said reducing poverty in Brazil is a top priority — through tax reform, expanded welfare and raising the minimum wage.
In Brazil in 2022:
▪️ 100 million people were in poverty
▪️ 33 million faced acute hunger
President Bolsonaro called widespread hunger "a big lie."
Brazil is one of the most unequal places on Earth today:
An average white worker makes almost 2x the average Afro-Latino worker.
The 1% of richest Brazilians (mostly white) control almost 30% of the country's entire wealth — more than all Afro-Brazilian women put together.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
The International Court of Justice has begun the hearing for South Africa’s case against Israel. In it, South Africa accuses Israel of eight different acts of genocide.
Here’s what they are 🧵
1 - Killing Palestinians
Israeli forces have killed at least 23,708 Palestinians since Oct. 7. 8,000 more Palestinians are missing.
2 - Causing serious bodily and mental harm
Over 59,410 Palestinians have been injured. More than 1,000 children have lost limbs.
The U.S. launched a racist eugenics program in Puerto Rico in the 1930s — sterilizing about one third of Puerto Rican women by 1976, many forced or coerced.
It was just one chapter of U.S. colonial eugenics programs and medical experiments targeting women of color. 🧵(1/8)
The U.S. approved forced sterilization in Puerto Rico in 1937 for what it called "overpopulation."
U.S. land theft and exploitation plunged the island into poverty. Health workers coerced people seeking contraception — mostly targeting Black and brown women — into sterilization.
U.S. occupiers transformed Puerto Rico's economy to focus on sugar — for U.S. interests — after invading in 1898.
70% of Puerto Ricans were made landless by 1925. By the 1930s:
▪️ 1 in 3 people unemployed
▪️ 80% of land owned by 2% of population, mostly white
BREAKING: A 6.3 earthquake hit the Turkey-Syria border, two weeks after the devastating earthquake.
No new casualties were immediately reported but witnesses report damage. Turkey has reported over 6,000 aftershocks since the February 6 earthquake killed over 46,000 people.
The Feb. 6 earthquake made over 1 million homeless in Turkey alone:
▪️ over 20,000 buildings collapsed
▪️ over 105,000 buildings need demolition
The government has been criticized for lax regulations. An ex-minister says that as of 2018, half of all buildings broke regulation.
Over 46,000 people in Turkey and Syria were killed by the February 6 earthquake.
Many are missing, but there is no official count.
The UN says:
▪️ Up to 5 million made homeless in Syria, many are already displaced
▪️ 350,000+ pregnant women need access to shelter, medical care
The UK and the U.S. forcibly displaced an entire Indigenous population from the Chagos Islands to build a military base.
Chagossians were never paid reparations or significant compensation. A new @hrw report accuses both countries of crimes against humanity. 🧵
The Chagos Islands are the UK's last African colony.
Most inhabitants were descendants of African and South Asian people enslaved or indentured to work on coconut plantations.
The UK evicted them in the 1960s to build a U.S. base in exchange for discounts on nuclear weapons.
Up to 2,000 Chagossians were forcibly displaced from their homes from 1965-1973.
The UK:
▪️ blocked supplies of food and medical care to starve the population out
▪️ blocked people returning if they traveled
▪️ intimidated residents by shooting or poisoning over 1,000 pet dogs